§ 478. Tax exemption for off-street parking facilities providing
underground shelters. A city or a village may by local law, duly
enacted, provide that any building, whether constructed underground or
above ground, which is constructed for the purpose of providing
automobile parking, or any existing building, not presently used for
off-street automobile parking, which is altered, remodeled or
reconstructed for such purpose, and which provides underground shelter
complying with the provisions of the New York state defense emergency
act and the plan, regulations and orders of the state civil defense
commission promulgated thereunder shall be exempt from taxation for a
period of not to exceed twenty-five years after the taxable status date
immediately following completion of such construction, alteration,
remodeling or reconstruction; provided, however, that no such building
shall be exempt from taxation as herein provided unless (a) such
building has a minimum parking capacity of: in the city of New York,
two hundred fifty cars; in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Albany
and Yonkers, one hundred fifty cars; and in other cities or villages of
the state, seventy-five cars and (b) at least seventy-five per centum of
the total floor area of the building is used exclusively for providing
off-street parking for automobiles. The exemption shall apply only to
that portion of the building used for such purpose including an office
and waiting room and shall not include the land upon which or under
which such building stands.

No provision of this section shall be construed or interpreted as
affecting the validity of any ordinance enacted prior to July first,
nineteen hundred sixty-six, or actions taken thereunder by the
government of any county, city, town or village.